Faith and Letters

Paul Elie is the author of two big books; The Life You Save May Be Your Own and Reinventing Bach.  The Life You Save May Be Your Own focuses on the lives of, and relationships between, four mid-twentieth century Catholic writers, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Flannery O'Connor and Walker Percy. Reinventing Bach tells the story of the life and music of the famed composer through the particular ways in which his music has been interpreted and recorded by well-known musicians of the twentieth century.  I spoke with Paul about writing about the lives and work of others, the spiritual aspect of Bach's music, and his time as an editor at Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. 

In 1996, Dr. John Mark Reynolds founded the Torrey Honors College, the Great Books program at Biola University. After many years there, he went on to serve as provost at Houston Baptist University, and later to help start The Saint Constantine School, an Orthodox Classical Christian school in Houston, Texas where he currently serves as president.  I studied under Dr. Reynolds during my first year at Biola, and I have always thought back fondly on my time in the program. After that initial exposure, I've continued to be fascinated by the assumptions and values that underpin classical education, as well the development of the Western canon. I enjoyed reconnecting with Dr. Reynolds, and getting an opportunity to ask about his own take on, and experience with, this ancient vision of human formation. 

Laura Jansson is a practicing doula, Orthodox Christian, and the author of Fertile Ground: A Pilgrimage Through Pregnancy, a creative work of theology that examines a broad range of Christian imagery and scripture through the lens of pregnancy and childbirth. From Jesus' exhortation to Nicodemus that he be "born again," to a comparison of labor and birth to the Easter journey through death and resurrection, to meditations on the awesome mystery of a woman's ability to touch the power of God as she participates in literal co-creation, Laura's work is inventive, humane, and deeply moving. Whether you're a parent or not, there's something for everyone here. 

Fred Bahnson's essays and journalism have appeared in Harper's, Orion, Oxford American, Image, and The Sun, among other publications, and he has been the recipient of a Pulitzer Center grant. He is also the author of Soil and Sacrament: A Spiritual Memoir of Food and Faith.  Fred's work in recent years has featured Christian contemplatives and mysticism, in addition to his longstanding interests in the natural world and our relationship to it as people of faith. Fred and I ended up spending a good portion of this conversation talking directly about his own practice of contemplation, and my struggles with the practice of silence. We later got around to discussing the work of Barry Lopez, a writer who is near to my heart and whom Fred met and wrote about not long before Barry's death in 2020.  https://harpers.org/archive/2022/08/the-quest-to-save-ancient-manuscripts-gao-mali/ https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/an-unbroken-grace/

Ken Myers is the founder of the Mars Hill Audio Journal, a quarterly audio periodical that features his interviews with a wide-ranging slate of writers and thinkers, from the well-known and popular to the relatively obscure. Whether discussing medications with a clinical psychiatrist or the music of Bach with a biographer, Ken is continually circling the interests and questions that have fueled his project for thirty years now; questions like, “what is a good life,” “what is a healthy culture,” “what is the shape and order of creation,” and “what might we as Christians most benefit from focusing our attention on?” 

Peter Wehner served in three Republican presidential administrations, including as an advisor to President George W. Bush. His essays and opinion pieces on politics and religion appear regularly in the pages of both The Atlantic and The New York Times. He is also the author of several books, including most recently, The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump. The subtitle of that book makes his position on the former president clear: I can think of no more consistently staunch critic of Donald Trump than Pete has been these last seven years. One of his main themes as a columnist is the relationship between American evangelicalism and the political movement for which Donald Trump has become both champion and avatar, as well as the distress this has caused him and many other American Christians. As someone who grew up in the evangelical world, and has been deeply disturbed by the way in which many evangelicals have countenanced, and at times even celebrated, the caustic, self-interested politics of former President Trump, I've found a kind of sanity in Pete's unvarnished take on the situation.  He and I discussed how to write honestly about those you disagree with without falling into the very hatred you hope to be opposing, his experience working with religious believers in power, and the vexing question of why so many of us Christians don't seem all that different from anyone else. 

John Darnielle is the lead vocalist and primary member of the Mountain Goats, an American indie rock band, and the author of three novels. His debut, "Wolf in White Van," was nominated for the National Book Award. His most recent novel is "Devil House."

To cap off this first season of Faith + Letters, I invite my good friend Dan Koch, host of the You Have Permission podcast, to have a conversation with me about how I make the show, what I've learned about myself in the process, and where I'm going from here. If you're interested in podcasts generally, you'll enjoy this episode. Thank you so much for listening along with me through Season One! If you'd like to get in touch, feel free to drop me a line at ben.j.bishop@gmail.com. 

Adam Lewis Greene is the creator of Bibliotheca, a painstakingly designed Reader's Bible without chapter or verse notations. Both a beautiful physical object and a return to more ancient forms, Bibliotheca was funded through an explosively viral Kickstarter that became the single-highest grossing book campaign in the company's history. Adam and I go very, very deep on Bible design, translation, and scholarship, as well as his own emotional journey through this massive project. Whatever your history with the Bible, I can guarantee you're about to learn something new.  https://www.bibliotheca.co/

Sara Billups is the author of "The Irresistible Peril of Publishing," an essay on the challenges writers seeking publication often contend with. I found the piece resonant on many levels — my own publishing travails were certainly fodder for our conversation — but I hope any working artist will find this conversation encouraging. We also discuss Sara's thoughts on being openly Christian in her writing, her city, and with non-Christian friends and colleagues.  The Irresistible Peril of Publishing - https://www.ekstasismagazine.com/blog/2020/3/21/the-irresistible-peril-of-publishing Sara's piece on publicly identifying as a Christian - https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/january-web-only/new-years-resolution-call-myself-christian-in-public.html Sara's personal sitehttps://www.sarabillups.com/

Tim Mackie is the theological brain behind BibleProject, an animation studio focused on creating videos to explain the context, themes, and overarching story of the Bible. Tim is an enigma; he holds a PhD in Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but prior to entering that track was an academic failure in high school; he reads dead languages and dry commentaries as part of his work for a slick digital creative firm. I loved talking with him.   Tim's got an incredible reading list on his bio page, and spent some time convincing me of the greatness of Abraham Joshua Heschel. He's also got multiple podcasts, including Exploring My Strange Bible and the BibleProject podcast. We ended our long discussion on the Bible, reading, and his own journey by talking about what a young person interested in following in his skater-punk-Bible-nerd footsteps should be focusing on early in their career. Exploring My Strange Bible - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/exploring-my-strange-bible/id1271147429 BibleProject Pod - https://bibleproject.com/podcasts/the-bible-project-podcast/ Tim's bio and reading list - https://bibleproject.com/tim-mackie/

Danielle Mayfield is the author of The Myth of the American Dream: Notes on Affluence, Autonomy, Safety, and Power. Her essays and features have appeared in a wide range of publications, including Christianity Today, The Washington Post, and Image. Much of Danielle's work centers on what she refers to as "downward mobility," the idea that the Christian Gospel's strong call toward solidarity with the poor will inevitably demand much of late-capitalist American Christians. dlmayfield.com  

Macy Halford is the author of My Utmost: A Devotional Memoir, which details her lifelong relationship with the classic Christian devotional text, My Utmost For His Highest, by the Scottish preacher Oswald Chambers. She is the former editor of the online book review at The New Yorker, and now lives in Strasbourg where she teaches and continues to write. 

Daniel Taylor was a professor of English at Bethel University for over thirty years, and is the author of numerous works, including The Myth of Certainty, a book that framed our discussion on faith, doubt, certainty, modernism, and the lived experience of those he describes as "reflective Christians."  www.wordtaylor.com/

Chris Hoke is a gang pastor, jail chaplain, and founder of Underground Ministries. His memoir, Wanted: A Spiritual Pursuit Through Jails, Among Outlaws, and Across Borders, renders the stories of his work with current and former gang members in Washington's Skagit Valley in vivid detail. Underground Ministries - https://undergroundministries.org/